Quote:
Originally Posted by Von Due
Some species of dolphins may come up to swimmers to play or out of curiosity. They are known to follow ships. They have been reported to aid swimmers in trouble. Humpback whales are not famous for doing the same. Orcas in the wild, while you can swim near them and no fatalities have been reported, you better be cautious around. Not that they are after you, it's just that their size and power means that curiosity can quickly turn into a serious situation. Some seals are relatively safe to have around. Leopard seals not so. Don't swim with bull sharks if you have no idea what you're doing. Sand tiger sharks rarely can be bothered with attacking anything larger than a haddock. In all cases, let the animal have its personal space unless it invites you in. Mutual respect for privacy goes a long way.
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Dolphins and whales, among other sea life, are highly protected by California law and enjoy a very much 'hands off' existence in our waters; fishing and shipping is highly regulated to keep the dolphins and whales as safe as possible; for instance, while whale watching from tour boats is possible, the boats are prohibited from going up close to any sighted whales; because of this, the whales and dolphins have kind of settled into peaceful coexistence with us humans; there have been many occasions in recent years where the whales have swum inshore to get up close to the watch boats and, sometimes, surfers and swimmers; there have been no incidents of the creatures trying to harm humans, whether inadvertently or deliberately; its almost as if they sense the efforts of the humans in the area to protect them and now trust them; the dolphins have been seen surrounding and running with jet skiers just off shore; this clip was taken by a drone flying above a watcher ship:
...this clip was taken by some jet skiers who were surrounded by hundreds of dolphins a few years back...
The incident I referred to earlier was notable because the dolphins came really close in shore, to waters that were waist to shoulder high depth and they swam very close to human swimmers, including some grade school age children; the dolphins were noy aggressive at all and swam around for a while and left; one speculation has been, due to the lockdowns and the very limited access to the beaches causing rather sparse human presence, the dolphins are coming in close because there is little interference; another speculation is that now, since the humans don't come out to them, they are coming in to visit the humans; if you're gonna have a sea creature miss you, it might as well be a dolphin instead of, say, a mackerel...
This is a link to a news article about the recent sighting/event with a link to a FB posting of the video:
https://www.ocregister.com/2020/08/0...-laguna-beach/
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